FCSL playoff game will resume today

LAKE SPORTS

Rain calls off the Leesburg-Winter Park postseason game in the 2nd inning.

August 3, 2007|By Joe Williams, Sentinel Staff Writer

The Leesburg Lightning no longer will enjoy home-field advantage for its first round playoff game in the Florida Collegiate Summer League.

Rain forced league officials Thursday to rearrange the tournament schedule.

Leesburg's game against the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs, which began Wednesday night at Pat Thomas Stadium/Buddy Lowe Field in Leesburg, was called in the second inning. Rain on Thursday forced the league to cancel its attempt to conclude the game in Leesburg.

Instead, weather permitting, the Lightning (20-11) will conclude their first-round playoff game at 1 p.m. today in Sanford Memorial Stadium, meaning Winter Park (12-18) and Leesburg will play their own version of a day-night doubleheader in Sanford.

The loser of the early afternoon's game will play in a losers bracket game against Winter Springs at 5 p.m. The winner will play Altamonte Springs in the winners bracket final at 8 p.m., with the winner earning a spot in Sunday's championship game at 7:30 p.m. in Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

The game will follow the conclusion of the Baltimore Orioles-Tampa Bay Devil Rays game.

There will be a losers bracket final game in Sanford on Saturday, probably at 1 p.m., to determine the other team in the championship game.

Although disappointed not to be at home, Leesburg Coach Josh Holt concurred with the league's decision to cancel Thursday night's game.

"It's supposed to rain the rest of the day," Holt said. "There is no sense in trying to play and have somebody get injured playing on a wet field."

The game will pick up from the point it was stopped in the top of the second inning. The game is scoreless, but Winter Park has the bases loaded with two outs. Steven Miller, Leesburg's starter on the mound Wednesday night, is expected to return to the mound today.

"That's the plan," Holt said about Miller returning to the mound. "But I haven't gotten a definitive answer from him yet [about how he feels].'' Although the Lightning-Diamond Dawgs game was stopped by rain, the league's other playoff game Wednesday night did finish. Winter Springs (23-13), the regular-season champ, was upset 5-1 by the fourth-place Altamonte Springs Snappers (14-18).

John Brandeburg, a Leesburg businessman and Lightning supporter, is organizing a fan caravan to head to today's games. Anyone interested in being part of the caravan to Sanford should be at Pat Thomas Stadium, located on the Dixie Avenue and Canal Street in Leesburg, by 10:30 a.m. For details, contact Brandeburg at 352-406-7568.

Fans should also be able to get scores of the playoff games on the FCSL website, www.floridaleague.com.